


These Two Sons

by duckiesinaline



Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Legacy (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-02
Updated: 2012-06-02
Packaged: 2017-11-06 16:07:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/420772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckiesinaline/pseuds/duckiesinaline
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alan felt something knot painfully around his middle. Sam, in that instant, looked just like any other program.</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Two Sons

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Winzler's fabulous Reset universe ... albeit a slightly different version. An AU for the AU!

" - managed to arrange some flex time, citing family illness. So starting Monday she'll be able to put more hours into figuring out how to get you out of - "

"She shouldn't have done that."

Alan stared. Being interrupted by a sullen Sam had been an all-too frequent occurrence throughout their relationship, but there was something about the slump of the young man's shoulders as he tapped half-heartedly at a datasheet that made his chest tighten. "Why not? You're our top priority - "

"Maybe I shouldn't be. I mean, you've got your own lives to keep up, and it's not like I'm dying right now or anything - "

"Sam!"

Sam winced, frowning in earnest this time, and wiped the results of the last few millicycles away as he pushed himself to his feet. "Sorry. Look, maybe I just need some time-out for now and - "

Alan swallowed. Thought, once upon a time, that he had been fascinated that he breathed and swallowed and could feel too full on the Grid, and wondered if he still had human innards in a digital world. Except then he had been shown that very fact in all its technicolor gore, and since then had given serious thought to his doctor's suggestions to avoid red meat in his diet. Perhaps go vegetarian altogether. 

"Sam - " he began helplessly, was already expecting it when the boy turn away with an angry hunch of his shoulders as he had done dozens - perhaps hundreds - of times before. Except there was something subtly off about the angles, about the cant of the head and the shift of the arms, and Alan blinked, trying to figure out if it was a miscalibration in his glasses or something that over-wrought emotions was making up ...

"Sam," Tron's voice abruptly sliced across the room as he approached, a stack of datasheets tucked under one arm and a frown focused with laser precision upon the young man. "Why aren't you responding to Lex's pings? You promised to give her that demo of - "

"I know, I know! Christ, can't a guy have a proper pity-fest without - "

Sam threw his hands up in the air with a roll of his eyes. Tron took advantage of the opening to shove the datasheets into his middle, and something must have happened in between, because Sam gave an odd, half-choked snort and slapped a hand belatedly over them before they all slithered away while the other caught at the program's forearm. "Hey! What the hell was that supposed to mean - "

Tron tilted his head, expression bland, his body canted in that strange, posturing way that programs all exhibited at one point or another, as if they were plastic models in clothing store windows. Sam's lower lip jutted out stubbornly, and suddenly, Alan could see it; how Sam drew his shoulders back and planted his weight and turned his elbow akimbo and ... and ...

Alan felt something knot painfully around his middle. Sam, in that instant, looked just like any other program.

"Yeah? So who is it that owes her ten shifts by now? Huh? What? What's that? I think the answer is _'not me'_ \- !" Sam crowed, mimed listening to a conversation that Alan had been left out of long ago, and Tron's eyes narrowed as he rocked up onto the balls of his feet, body curving ...

Sam echoed the motion in perfect mirror; as natural as vanilla ice cream with Lora's apple pie.

And as the two bared their teeth at each other in fond, ritual challenge, these two sons who should never have been Alan's ... he began to breathe just a little bit easier.


End file.
